Optimizing the Waiting Time for Airport Security Screening Using Multiple Queues and Servers

Airport security screening processes are essential to ensure the safety of passengers and the aviation industry. Security at airports has improved noticeably in recent years through the utilisation of state-of-the-art technologies and highly trained security officers. However, maintaining a high level of security can be costly to operate and implement and can cause delays for passengers and airlines. In optimising a security process it is essential to strike a balance between time delays, security and reduced operation cost. This paper uses queueing theory as a method to study the impact of queue formation and the size of the security area on the average waiting time for the case of multi-lane parallel servers. An experiment is conducted to validate the proposed approach.